WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Little girl's story inspires WCAX viewers

Little girl's story inspires WCAX viewers

Colchester, Vermont - December 20, 2011

She's a little girl who doesn't have a whole lot.

"If you unroll that it turns into a futon, so that's where I've been sleeping," said Shanoah Addis, 9.

Shanoah has been battling Ewing sarcoma cancer while sleeping on her grandmother's couch. Doctors told Shanoah and her mother their mildew and mouse-infested trailer was uninhabitable.

"To have to put school on hold, hear your daughter has cancer, have your car break down and not be able to live at your house all at the same time is a lot," mom Marci Godin said.

When we first met Shanoah she told us her Christmas wish: "I probably want a pony but I know that's not happening." She also told us about her desire to find a new home for her family. Saturday one of those wishes came true.

"I said for Shanoah it's on me. I'll take care of the board; I'll take care of the riding lessons. I really want her to have this horse," Peggy Murray said.

"Some people that we've met on this journey are so kind and it just amazes me how at the beginning of this journey they didn't know us and now they're such close friends," Godin said.

Peggy Murray specializes in healing people with horses. She said when she heard Shanoah's story on WCAX, she knew Tilly would be a perfect fit.

"I said someone told me you wanted a horse for Christmas. I said this is yours and the baby just hugged me, almost like disbelief," Murray said.

Shanoah's condition, Ewing sarcoma, is a rare type of bone cancer that strikes 250 young kids and adolescents in the U.S. every year.

"I think it's really important that they're there for each other to love each other, I think it will make for a better bond," Godin said.

Especially because Tilly needs to heal as much as Shanoah does. Tilly suffers from navicular disease. It deteriorates the bone in her foot. She'll be getting surgery to fix this condition in January, around the time Marci Godin hopes to hear the word remission for Shanoah.

"I hope that when she goes down to Boston and has radiation she can be thinking of Tilly the whole time and have a purpose," Murray said.

"She's always said, even from the beginning, don't worry mom I'll beat this, I'm going to make it, I'm going to kick cancer's butt," Godin said.

It's a fight Shanoah plans to win, now with the help of a new friend who knows exactly what she's going through.

Shanoah's family received several donations from WCAX News viewers to help them build a new home, a project they're hoping to have enough money for by this spring.

If you want to help, you can donate to the Shanoah Addis Fund at any Citizens Bank in Vermont.